The present invention relates generally to the field of presentation processing of online content, and more particularly to annotating online content.
Online content, or web content, refers to textual, visual, or aural content that may be encountered as part of the user experience on web sites. It may include text, images, audio and video files, and animations. In many cases, online content may be augmented with user comments. Comments are typically viewed in a separate comments section of the web page below or to the side of the online content. In some cases, a comment may express a critique or other form of feedback that relates to a specific portion of the content, or it may provide additional information relevant to a specific portion of the content. An example is timed comments, which are anchored by individual commenters to specific moments in a video or audio recording.
Comments can be of various types, including unimportant chit-chat and comments that support or are critical of the online content. Many comments are simply spam, including disruptive or commercial messages, or constitute trolling, i.e., are deliberately inflammatory or provocative.